Jeff Butler's Games of the Week - Wk 9

Ok sports fans!

Entering the Auburn Game, as several previous games, Les Miles and the LSU Tigers felt they had something to prove. They were desperately looking for that break-out game for quarterback Jordan Jefferson and the underachieving offense. A game that would legitimize national title hopes. To that point, the offense consisted of very good running game and a passing game that completely consisted of short to intermediate passes. An offense that was predictable and often called vanilla. This game, Miles had promised a more aggressive downfield attack and more pocket presence from his young quarterback.

On Monday, I hope that coach Miles was sending a thank you card to Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof. Roof’s game plan played right into what Miles was wanting to do, albeit a fan pleaser. Auburn seemingly decided to attack LSU’s strength, its running game. Shut down the running game and dare the sophomore quarterback to beat them with his arm. Well, it worked out well for LSU. Auburn’s porous secondary was lit up for a LSU season high 242 passing yards. It quietened a lot of the critics but rose concerns for the running game as the Tigers star running back, Charles Scott, was held to a measly 20 yards. Freshman sensation Russell Sheppard struggled for running room with 5 carries for 6 yards until he broke one for loose for 69 yards and his first collegiate score.

Although Miles is declaring mission accomplished, I believe LSU still hasn’t put together a complete game offensively. When facing a complete defense like Alabama, the Tigers will need a balanced attack. The good news is the defense is playing about as good as one can. In the last three SEC games, the Tiger defense has only allowed two touchdowns. Only Alabama has allowed fewer in the SEC.
This week LSU has the downtrodden Tulane Greenwave. It should not be as much of a test of ability as it will be a test of mental focus. With the biggest game of the year, Alabama, looming the following week, the Tigers must focus on the game at hand and not look ahead. LSU cruises to victory 45-3.

The next game of the week features reigning national champion and SEC referee-favorite, Florida vs Georgia. This game looked a whole lot better in the preseason when Georgia was thought to be a top contender. Most people changed their mind after the first week. Florida’s offense don’t seem to be playing as well as they were before Tebow’s injury. Do I think that Tebow is still suffering affects of his injury? No. But I do believe it has altered their mental approach. Tebow does not seem to be playing with the same reckless abandon that he was known for in his four years at Florida. Are they worried that they could suffer a multi-million dollar mistake like what happened to Sam Bradford? It has to in the back of their minds. If Tebow goes down for the season, he can forget about the first round and the lucrative signing bonus.

Although Florida is not playing as well as they were, Georgia is not playing as well as Florida is. For whatever that is worth, Florida prevails 24-10.

Next up we have a BIG 2 matchup with Texas facing off with Oklahoma State. Oklahoma is out of the picture, which leaves these two to battle it out for first place in the South division. The 6-1 record of OSU looks impressive until look at who the beat and who they lost to. Texas’ schedule don’t look much tougher, but has manage to avoid the upset. This looks to be a good game and I pick Texas winning 27-24. And it might be a little early to call this but I believe Texas to finish regular season play undefeated and they win the conference championship and play in the National Championship game. And gets slaughtered.

In the PAC 1, USC is in a must win matchup against Oregon. This is essentially the PAC 10 championship game. The team that wins this game should go on to claim the conference title and start politicking for National championship consideration. USC has been a staple in the top ten for years as no other PAC 10 team has came even close to the success that USC has, therefore USC generally gets the benefit of the doubt with the pollsters. It will be tough for either team to make it to the National championship game as they come from a weak conference that don’t have a conference championship game. USC would have the best hope ranked #5, but Oregon will have something to say about that. Oregon upsets USC 17-14.

In the “Who Cares?” game of the week, two of the biggest egos, coach Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) and coach Lane Kiffin (Tennessee), face off against each other. And the really don’t like each other much. Should be interesting, but it won’t be. Tennessee’s defense is stingy and the South Carolina offense needs a Garmin to find the end zone. Tennessee wins 9-7.

That is my picks! What is yours?

Jeff Butler

Saints Look Like Early Favorite in the NFC

Those of you who really know me know this. I am a life long Brett Favre fanatic. Favre has the Minnesota Vikings off to a 3-0 start and I would love to think that the Vikes are the team to beat in the NFC. But I do not think that they are the team to beat. With each passing week it's looking more and more like the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC will go through New Orleans.

The Saints are now 3-0 for only the sixth time in 43 years of existence after Sunday's 27-7 win at Buffalo. And this year it looks like the Saints don't have to have a monster stat game from quarterback Drew Brees to win.

On Sunday Brees only threw for 172 yards. That was his lowest passing yardage total in a game since 2006. Brees was backed up by a Saints rushing attack that produced over 220 rush yards including 126 (all in second half) by Pierre Thomas.

Did you know this? After three weeks the Saints rank second in the NFL with 170.7 rushing yards per game. If you can run the ball like that in the NFL, you will be successful even without a great quarterback. It doesn't matter who is toting the rock either. Mike Bell looked great against the Lions and Eagles. Thomas was fantastic against Buffalo, and for crying out loud, even Reggie Bush is running the ball well!

I wonder, if you are and NFL defensive coordinator, how do you gameplan to stop the Saints offense? If you focus on the run then Brees will burn you all day long. And if you try to contain Brees then Thomas, Bell and Bush will run with ease.

Before the season started I said that I thought the Saints defense would be much improved under new coordinator Greg Williams. The Saints defense didn't need to be top notch this season for the Saints to make the playoffs. Just middle of the pack and I thought Williams could get them there. After three weeks, that's exactly where the Saints defense ranks, 12th out of 32 teams.

I'll leave you with two more tidbits. In 180 minutes of football this season, the Saints have yet to trail in a game. Also, under Sean Payton the Saints are now 12-0 when allowing 14 points or less. With the way the defense is playing, I can certainly see the Saints holding a few more teams to 14 points or less.

This Sunday the Saints host the red hot New York Jets and rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez. He's the first rookie QB to start his career 3-0, but something tells me that Mark will have his rookie "Welcome to the NFL" moment this Sunday in the Superdome.

WHO DAT!!!!!!!!!

Sulphur Coach Wins the Battle of His Life

For Sulphur head football coach Paul Bourgeois, the 2008 season was the most difficult of his life. However, it had nothing to do with the Golden Tors’ 5-5 record.

After each football season Bourgeois visits his family doctor for a routine checkup. But when he went to his doctor in February of 2008, something didn’t feel right.

“I was going through a stage where I felt real tired,” said Bourgeois. “There were some things that we talked to the doctor about, so we did some blood work and everything came back negative.”

After the visit, he was experiencing the same symptoms. Bourgeois didn’t have much energy and lacked the drive to do normal daily activities. He went back to the doctor in April and asked for more blood work.

This time the doctor came back with some disturbing news. MRI results showed that Bourgeois had a quarter size benign tumor in his brain. As soon as he received the news, Bourgeois drove two hours to MD Anderson Hospital in Houston. He was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove the tumor on June 3, 2008.

“The surgery lasted ten hours and went well,” said Bourgeois. “The reason for the length of the surgery was because the tumor was in a bad location, basically in the center of my head.”

The surgeon was able to remove all but six millimeters of the tumor. What was left was destroyed through six weeks of radiation treatment.

Bourgeois began his radiation treatments in late July of 2008. He had to undergo radiation once a day, Monday through Friday. With a new football season beginning in early August, Bourgeois did not want to spend weeks at a time at MD Anderson. He decided to go back and forth between Sulphur and Houston.

“Thank goodness I have the coaching staff that I do because they were basically running the show during August,” said Bourgeois.

Many people told Bourgeois that driving back and forth during his radiation treatments was ridiculous. But the coach didn’t see it that way. Coming back to Sulphur every chance that he could gave Bourgeois a sense of relief.

“Traveling back and forth worked for me,” said Bourgeois. “MD Anderson is a sad place to be. There are some very, very sick people at that place. To be able to come to work and be with youth, coaches, and a lot of healthy people… I felt better when I came home.”

In the six months following his surgery Bourgeois gained 60 pounds. But the weight gain wasn’t due to his diet or work out habits. The tumor basically smothered his pituitary gland. The pituitary gland secretes many important hormones which greatly influence growth and metabolism.

“Basically I have no use of my pituitary gland anymore,” said Bourgeois. “It doesn’t look like I work out and diet, but I do, and thank goodness I do because obviously I would be a lot bigger.”

The road to recovery for Paul Bourgeois looks outstanding. He went back to MD Anderson in October of 2008 and learned that the lesion was no longer reasonably defined. And the news was even better for Bourgeois when he returned to Houston in April. The lesion was even smaller than it was in the previous examination.

Now having survived this ordeal, he has an even greater appreciation for being able to do what he loves, which is coaching high school football.

“This has been my most enjoyable spring since I have been in coaching,” said Bourgeois. “Last spring I wasn’t sure if I would be able to continue coaching, and with the surgery looming, I wasn’t able to enjoy myself because I didn’t know the outcome. Now I’m just happy to be here.”

Local Legend is Making a Major Impact in the Big Leagues

Joe Lawrence may be the most celebrated baseball player ever to come out of Southwest Louisiana.

In 1996 Lawrence was selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft straight out of Barbe High School. He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays who he played for from 1996-2002, and finished his baseball playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003.

It looked like his MLB career was over, but ironically, another sport reconnected Lawrence to the big leagues.

In the summer of 2003 Lawrence received a phone call from the LSU Football team. Lawrence, who had not played football since high school, was given an opportunity to play for the Tigers at the age of 27.

“It was something that intrigued me, and it didn’t help that I had some best friends that wanted to see that happen,” said Lawrence. “I got the family support that I needed to make the decision, so I decided to give it a whirl.”

Joe’s LSU Football encounter was short-lived as he suffered a devastating knee injury, but the experience was still extremely productive. That’s where Lawrence was introduced to Jack Marucci who is LSU’s head athletic trainer.

Marucci was a big baseball fan and spent some of his free time hand crafting wooden baseball bats for his son. Knowing Joe’s background, Jack sought the former major leaguer’s opinion on the bats, and Joe told the trainer that the bats needed to be in the hands of major leaguers.

Lawrence, Marucci, and Kurt Ainsworth, who is another former major leaguer, formed The Marucci Bat Company.

“In 2004 we got licensed by the major leagues,” Lawrence said. “We go from eight clients then, to now where we are in the hundreds.”

The Marucci Bat Company, which is located in Baton Rouge, has come a long way since 2004. Marucci is currently the second leading bat manufacturer in Major League Baseball behind the Louisville Slugger.

“If there is one marketing scheme we used, it was letting the right people swing our bats,” said Lawrence. “It has caused a ripple effect through the major leagues. We have clients from every organization in the league. Our clients are typically the better players on the team meaning character wise. They just happen to be great players as well.”

Marucci’s clients include Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are two of MLB’s top sluggers in the game today.
And while Marucci has well over two hundred major league clients, the company produces thousands of bats each year.

“We did close to 18,000 bats in 2008,” said Lawrence. “This year we projected 20,000 and we’re well ahead of that pace.”

Lawrence is still very actively involved with the Barbe baseball program. Last year Marucci developed a prototype aluminum bat called the Cat 5. Lawrence allowed Barbe to use the bat last year, and maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Barbe won the state championship.

“Our kids love it,” said Barbe head baseball coach Glenn Cecchini. We just have one bat because they are being manufactured right now and all of the kids say it’s the best bat they’ve ever used.”

“It’s the hottest bat on the market as far as technology,” Lawrence said. “If you get any hotter, that’s an aluminum bat term meaning how the ball comes off of the barrel, it’s going to be illegal. So we are right on that threshold. We’ve pushed it as far as we can push it.”

The future certainly looks bright for Joe Lawrence and The Marucci Bat family. With the launch of its new aluminum bat, Marucci expects to become a major player in the aluminum bat industry, just as the company has done with its wooden bat line.

How Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is making SWLA a safer place

The fastest growing sport in America is not football. It’s not baseball or auto racing.
It’s mixed martial arts.
For the past fifteen years mixed martial arts or MMA has steadily gained popularity.
However, the sport has never received more attention than it does today. Interest in MMA has also increased here in Southwest Louisiana. Thousands of lake area men, women and children train in mixed martial arts.

Some of them fight competitively, while others train strictly to stay in shape or to learn self defense tactics. And there are some that train in mixed martial arts because everything that is learned in the classroom can be applied to their careers.

Corey Manuel works as a deputy for the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office. Four years ago, while working the late night patrol, Corey found himself in a fight for his life.

“I got in a foot pursuit with a suspect,” said Manuel. “I chased him for about a mile and he decided he wanted to fight me. Not fight to get away, he actually wanted to fight.” In the process of fighting he tried disarming me, so it was very eye opening. And when I left the scene that night I told myself I was going to do everything I could to protect myself.”

That frightening experience led Corey to Lake Area Brazilian Jiu-Jisu in Lake Charles. The mixed martial arts training facility has become a second home for ten local law enforcement officers.

Each of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s deputies, Louisiana State Troopers and Lake Charles Police Officers who train at LABJJ went through physical training at the Police Academy. But through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, they have developed so many additional skills and techniques that can help them on the job.

“When you’re in the police academy they just give you basic tools,” said Manuel. “It’s up to the individual police officer to expand what they know.”

Louisiana State Trooper Andrew Leonards said, “I felt that there were a lot of situations where I might not know what to do. I feel more comfortable knowing that if something would happen, that I have a higher skill set than what I had coming out of the police academy.”

Lake Area Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu owner Mike Ellender started seeing an influx of local law enforcement officers at his facility three years ago.

“We do a lot of clinch work, a lot of takedowns, a lot of groundwork, and basically it’s showing someone how to control an opponent without having to hit or strike the opponent,” said Ellender. “We’re teaching these officers how to control whoever they are arresting and to defend themselves at the same time.”

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art that focuses on ground fighting. It promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger opponent using leverage and proper technique. Once the smaller person has control, they can administer a joint lock or choke hold to end the fight.

“With the things that Mike teaches us in here, I don’t feel there is any way joe blow on the street will have a chance with us,” said Louisiana State Trooper Justin Weeks. “If you don’t know brazilian jui jitsu and you go to the ground with someone who does, you don’t have a chance.”

“We’re all very professional,” says Manuel. “We don’t like using what we know. But I think the word on the street is that everybody knows who we are and what we do know. To be honest we don’t get tested much now.”

There is still a major misconception concerning mixed martial arts. Critics view mixed martial arts as a blood sport with a barbaric mentality. These law enforcement officers don’t train because it’s macho, or because they want to hurt someone, or because they are trying to prove something. They train five and six days each week for us.
Although they come from different branches of law enforcement, all of the officers share the same objective... Protect Southwest Louisiana.

“I think we’re depriving ourselves and community if we’re not the best at what we do,” said Manuel. “All of us give up times with our families to train and stay in good shape to go out on the streets and protect the public.”

Lake Charles Police Officer Mitch Sawyer echoes that sentiment. “It’s our job to protect the community,” says Sawyer. “And in order to do that to the best of our ability we need to take our training to the highest level that we can.”

McNeese State Football Pro Day

If you would like to watch the feature from MSU's pro day, watch the March 14th edition of 337 Sports.

Sixteen former McNeese State football players were given a physical testing by NFL scouts during the universitys pro day on Tuesday. Representatives from eleven NFL franchises were in Lake Charles to evaluate the Cowboys.

The Cowboys were given tests of all sorts including those for speed, strength, jumping and agility.

Here are the player's test results:

40 yard dash
Quinten Lawrence 4.40
Ramon Smothers 4.40
LaDarius Key 4.43
Steven Whitehead 4.45
Allen Nelson 4.53
Jeremy Haynes 4.56
Brant Linde 4.62
Brian Harvey 4.66
Jamelle Juneau 4.72
John Vigers 4.78
Kenton Alleyne 4.88
Blake Bercegeay 4.96
Vaalyn Jackson 5.12
Lance Fremin 5.20
Eman Naghavi 5.34
Kyle Link 5.50

225 pound bench press reps
Kenton Alleyne 24
Vaalyn Jackson 23
Eman Naghavi 23
Quinten Lawrence 21
LaDarius Key 20
Kyle Link 20
Brant Linde 18
Lance Fremin 18
Jeremy Haynes 18
Jamelle Juneau 17
Allen Nelson 12
John Vigers 11
Steven Whitehead 10
Brian Harvey 10
Ramon Smothers 9

Standing Broad Jump (in feet)
Ramon Smothers 10.10
Jeremey Haynes 10.04
Allen Nelson 10.03
John Vigers 10.03
LaDarius Key 10.01
Steven Whitehead 9.08
Kenton Alleyne 9.07
Brant Linde 9.05
Jamelle Juneau 9.03
Brian Harvey 9.03
Vaalyn Jackson 9.02
Blake Bercegeay 8.07
Lance Fremin 8.07
Eman Naghavi 8.00
Kyle Link 7.11

Vertical Jump (in feet)
Jeremy Haynes 39
Ramon Smothers 38
LaDarius Key 37
Steven Whitehead 35.5
Allen Nelson 35
John Vigers 34.5
Brant Linde 34
Kenton Alleyne 34
Jamelle Juneau 33.5
Vaalyn Jackson 33
Brian Harvey 32
Blake Bercegeay 27
Kyle Link 27.5
Eman Naghavi 27.5
Lance Fremin 26

Rough Night for SWLA Basketball Teams

Southwest Louisiana had a lot on the line Friday night on basketball courts across the state.

In Monroe, the Saint Louis Lady Saints and the South Beauregard Lady K's played for their respective state championships. While in Baton Rouge, the DeRidder Dragons were hoping to punch their ticket to the Boys' Top 28 state tournament.

Unfortunately, all three of the SWLA schools ended up on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

#4 Saint Louis was defeated 63-41 by #3 Capitol in the Class 3A state championship game. Remarkably, it is the fourth consecutive year that the Lady Saints have seen their season end at the hands of Capitol.

In the Class 2A state championship #2 South Beauregard was upended by #1 John Curtis 51-41. It was a dramatic day for the Greene family from Dry Creek. The South Beauregard Lady K's are coached by Chris Greene, who's brother Mike Greene is the head coach for the DeRidder boys' basketball team.

#7 DeRidder lost at #2 Glen Oaks 80-57, denying DeRidder it's second trip to the state tournament since 1977. DeRidder was the lone boys' basketball team from SWLA to advance to the quarterfinals.

Southwest Louisiana has one last opportunity to claim a basketball state championship. The top-seeded Fairview Lady Panthers take on #3 Zwolle in the Class B state final. The two teams will square off at noon tomorrow at the Fant-Ewing Coliseum in Monroe.